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Sometimes Adrien just needed to get out of the house and run.
He waited until they’d checked on him for the last time that evening, and then, with a word, he was transformed and racing across the rooftops.
He loved to run along the Seine, keeping the river to his left as he flew on fleet feet from the Mansion by the Eiffel Tower all the way to school over by Marinette’s house and Notre Dame.
It was particularly late that night. Adrien had actually gone to bed (or, at least, tried to go to bed), but his mind was too full of worries to let him rest. He’d gotten up a little before one, bribed Plagg with some Gorgonzola, and gone for a run, his heart heavy.
He got as far as the Pont des Arts when he spotted a familiar form down on the bridge, leaning on the railing and staring blankly out at the Île de la Cité.
Chat Noir stopped to wonder why Luka was alone on the other side of town from the Liberty this late at night. They weren’t too far from Marinette’s house. Perhaps he’d been with her?
He looked like he was deep in thought. Would Chat be interrupting him if he dropped in to say hi? Probably, but Luka looked kind of troubled. If Chat left him alone and he got akumatized…
“Good evening,” Chat Noir greeted, hopping down from the rooftop to the lamppost to the railing of the bridge.
Luka gave a start, his train of thought slipping through his fingers. “Ch-Chat Noir,” he gasped in surprise. “Good evening.”
Chat winced. “Sorry for startling you.”
Luka shrugged it off, giving the superhero an easy smile. “No worries. No blood, no foul, as they say.”
“Still.” Chat bit his lip, pinwheeling his legs over the railing to come to standing just out of Luka’s reach. “Sorry. Um…It’s Luka Couffaine, isn’t it?”
Luka’s eyes widened. “Yeah. Yeah, it is. Sorry. I didn’t expect you to remember me.”
“Of course I remember you. We—” Chat cut himself off, recalling that he was not currently Adrien. “—met several times.”
Luka averted his eyes. “Right. When my family members and I have gotten akumatized or caught up in attacks.”
Chat bit his lip harder, seeing that this was not helping improve Luka’s mood and decrease the likelihood of him being akumatized. “Well, yeah, but…I remembered you because you’re really cool.”
Luka’s head tipped to the side as if he were skeptical and trying to determine whether he believed Chat Noir. “Really?”
Chat nodded, trying to seem earnest. “Yeah, I mean you’re really level-headed and brave and compassionate. Maybe you don’t talk a lot, but when you do say something, it’s always positive and encouraging. You make people feel good. People remember people who make them feel good.”
Luka’s eyes narrowed slightly as they studied Chat’s face, taking in the curves and angles and trying to find a match in his memories. The way Chat Noir talked, it sounded like he’d interacted with Luka more than just a handful of times.
“Thanks,” he replied with a hint of a smile. “It’s good to know I made that kind of an impression on a superhero.”
“Any time,” Chat assured, thinking that he was in the clear. “So…mind if I ask what’s up? It’s kind of late for you to be out by yourself like this. Everything okay?”
Luka let out a long sigh, looking away and out over the water. “It’s…Well, it’s not stupid. It’s perfectly reasonable for me to be upset over it, but there’s really no point in being upset because I knew how this was going to turn out even before it started, but…”
He looked back at Chat and saw the confusion in the other boy’s eyes, the way Chat Noir was frowning, trying to follow, trying to think of ways to help but unable to understand.
“The girl I like,” Luka clarified. “She likes someone else, but he’s currently dating another girl in order to get over a third girl, so the girl I like has been kind of using me to make herself feel better. So that sucks.”
“Oh,” Chat replied in a small voice. “I’m…I’m sorry. That’s really…really rough. Especially since the guy who your crush likes sounds like a total jerk using that other girl and breaking the girl you like’s heart like that.”
Luka shook his head. “No. No, not at all. He’s…wonderful. He’s seriously a cupcake. He’s just poorly socialized and kinda…you know. He’s trying to find himself right now. I personally think he’s going in the wrong direction, but…he’s the sweetest guy, and he’d be horrified if he knew how many people he was hurting.”
“It doesn’t sound like you two have a very typical love rivals’ relationship,” Chat Noir noted, feeling a pang of jealousy towards this guy whom Luka had described so fondly.
Luka’s cheeks colored slightly, and he averted his eyes as a self-conscious smile parted his lips. “Considering I have a massive crush on him? Nope. Definitely not normal love rivals. He’s a friend, actually.”
“Oh,” Chat remarked laconically, voice tight.
He kind of wanted to sneak into Nino’s room and make him tell Adrien whom Marinette had a crush on. He knew Nino knew. This guy was not only breaking Luka and Marinette’s hearts but also messing with another girl while he was at it. Adrien was sorely tempted to rectify the situation.
“So, yeah,” Luka chuckled humorlessly. “I was just feeling a little hopeless and couldn’t really come up with a song to work out the feelings, so…I decided to go for a walk.”
Chat Noir frowned. “That’s a pretty long walk. Isn’t the Liberty docked by the Pont de Grenelle?”
Luka grimaced. “I needed a long walk or a bottle of whiskey. I thought the walk sounded healthier.”
Chat pursed his lips, not amused. “You’re, like, what? Sixteen?”
Luka shrugged, hitting Chat with a roguish grin that had his heart beating double time. “Yeah, but my mom’s a total anarchist. If I wanted to get drunk, I could. In my household, I have to be the responsible adult and say, ‘No. That’s not healthy; you’re going for a walk’.”
“Oh,” Chat breathed.
Luka shrugged again, looking a little wearier this time. “So here I am…. May I ask what you’re doing out so late? If I’m not mistaken, you’re even younger than I am. What’s a fourteen-year-old doing out running the rooftops at this time of night?”
Chat turned his head away so that Luka wouldn’t see the telling expression on Chat’s face, confirming that everything Luka said was true. “I’m older than I look. And I was…just…running away from my problems.”
“What kind of problems do you have?” Luka inquired gently, not challenging the assertion that Chat Noir had problems but simply asking out of curiosity. “If you feel like talking, that is. I’ve got time to listen.”
Chat scraped the steel tip of his boot against the wooden planks of the bridge. “Guilty conscious,” he muttered.
“You?” Luka snorted incredulously. “No. You’re…you’re wonderful, Chat Noir. One of the best people I’ve ever met.”
Chat could feel his cheeks burning. He couldn’t meet Luka’s gaze. “Well…I’m not acting wonderful at this point. I’m doing something wrong, and I know it’s wrong, but…it’s the kind of situation that’s hard to extract yourself from.”
Luka leaned farther forward on his elbows against the railing. “Yeah?”
Chat nodded. “I’m trying to move on from Ladybug, and there’s this girl I’m friends with, and she likes me. Like, really likes me, and I kind of like her too but not…” Chat looked up at the sky, searching for the right words among the stars. “…not like how I like Ladybug. So, I’m kind of unofficially dating my friend, trying to make it work, trying to make my heart stop doing backflips whenever Ladybug so much as looks at me, but…” He shook his head.
Luka nodded. “It’s hard to shake yourself free when they’ve got such a tight hold on your affections.”
“Yeah,” Chat sighed. “I’m trying to really fall for my friend, but…I can’t force it, and there she is, really in love with me, and I…I want to love her too, but…”
Luka tentatively reached out and set his hand on top of Chat’s.
Chat gave a start, his eyes connecting with Luka’s.
“But the sparks don’t fly when she holds your hand?” Luka finished for him.
Chat nodded, even as his heart sped up and his stomach flipped like a pancake.
Luka gave him a sympathetic look that seemed to see past Chat’s mask straight to Adrien. “Chat Noir, I think you need to be honest with your friend. Tell her that you’re stuck on someone else but that you like her too and really do want to make it work. Being honest is always best in that kind of situation. You don’t want to string her along like you’re doing now. Letting her remain ignorant of the problem isn’t kindness on your part, so don’t keep this from her any longer, okay?”
“Right,” Chat whispered, voice shaking. He was still caught up in Luka’s hand on his, Luka’s eyes gazing into his own.
“Sorry if I sound preachy,” Luka added shamefacedly. “I just…I’m imagining what it would be like if I didn’t know that Marinette was in love with someone else and not really emotionally available for me. Things suck enough as they are. To be completely in the dark only to be blindsided by it all later?” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Please don’t do that to that poor girl. If you really do care about her, you need to tell her the truth.”
“Right,” Chat responded, flipping his hand over so that Luka’s palm rested in his. “You’re right. I…I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
Luka smiled and nodded, giving Chat’s hand a squeeze. “Good. She’s probably not going to be happy, but I really do believe it’s the right thing in the long run.”
Chat Noir’s heart fluttered completely without his permission. “Thank you…for talking to me. I needed that.”
“Right back at you.” Luka made no move to take his hand back from Chat. “I’m really glad you stopped to check on me.”
“Any time,” Chat assured, mentally searching for something else to say to prolong the conversation. “Could I…maybe give you a lift home? It’s kind of far to be walking on your own at this hour. I mean, I’m sure you’d be fine, but…”
“I’d actually appreciate a lift, if you don’t mind,” Luka admitted with a bashful smile.
“I’m headed back that way anyway,” Chat insisted. “It’s no trouble at all. Here.” He stepped in, slipping his arm around Luka’s waist. “Put your arms around my neck.”
Luka had to let go of Chat’s hand to do this, but Chat found that he didn’t mind so much now that Luka was pressed up against him.
He made sure of his hold on Luka before activating his baton and launching them into the sky.
Luka gasped practically against Chat’s cheek.
“You okay?” Chat verified, landing on a nearby roof and pausing to make sure Luka was all right before taking off again.
“Yeah,” Luka breathed, and Chat picked up on the hint of wonder and awe in his voice. “It’s just…it’s beautiful up here. I think I’ll write a song about the view when I get home.”
Chat turned his head to respond only to find Luka looking right at him.
It stole Chat’s breath away for a moment before he remembered that he was airborne and needed to be paying attention lest he get Luka killed.
“Yeah,” Chat chuckled giddily. “It’s gorgeous up here.”
“It certainly is,” Luka agreed in a way that sent shivers racing through Chat’s body.
It didn’t take long for Chat Noir to reach the Liberty, and he found himself more disappointed than he’d anticipated to be saying goodbye.
“Well. Here we are,” he remarked unnecessarily, reluctantly setting Luka down on the deck.
“Thank you again, Chat Noir.” Luka smiled, taking his time in unwrapping his arms from around Chat’s neck and stepping back to a socially acceptable distance.
“Of course. You’re very welcome.” Once again, Chat mentally fished for something more to say. “…I guess…I should be off.”
Luka hummed neutrally.
Chat didn’t move. “Well…goodnight, Luka.” He held out his hand for a handshake. He had no idea why he did, but he did, and he felt stupid and awkward immediately.
Luka took pity and gave him a beneficent smile, taking Chat Noir’s hand and bringing it up to his lips to kiss the inside of Chat’s wrist on the pulse point.
Chat could feel it through his suit, and the contact made his temperature soar until his brain melted.
“Goodnight, Chat Noir,” Luka whispered sweetly, still smiling like a fallen angel as he released Chat’s hand and turned to go.
Chat stared after him dumbly, brain trying to cool down enough to process.
Before he quite got a handle on himself again, he called out, “Hey! Who’s this idiot guy you’ve got a crush on?”
Luka turned back around with an amused smile. “He’s not an idiot. …And his name is Adrien Agreste. Heard of him?” Luka snickered, enjoying the utterly abashed expression Chat Noir was making as his brain tried to sort through all this at once.
“Y-Yeah,” Chat choked. “The guy with his face all over the city?”
Luka nodded. “That’s the one. Not bad to look at and really kind too. Wonderful musician, smart, funny. I’d be over the moon if he asked me to coffee.”
On the inside, Adrien couldn’t tell if Luka had figured out his identity and was just screwing with him or if maybe Luka lost his filter after midnight. Either way, Chat felt like he was going to explode.
“Don’t be surprised if he does,” he snorted.
Luka grinned, assuring, “I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“Good,” Chat huffed. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Chat Noir,” Luka chuckled, turning to make his way down below deck, a giant smile indelibly etched onto his lips.
Chat Noir stood there on the deck of the Liberty for another three minutes, internally panicking.
Since when did boys make Adrien feel this frazzled? He found the answer to be, “since Luka Couffaine”, and he decided that that was okay for now. He’d think about it more deeply and at length at a later date.
At the moment, he needed to get home and get to sleep so that he’d be able to face Kagami the following day and be honest with her about where they stood. She was a precious friend to him, and he didn’t want to hurt her. Luka was right. He needed to tell her the truth.
And then, he needed to make his way over to the Liberty to invite Luka out for coffee.
Something in the back of his mind cautioned him that he was perhaps taking things too quickly and liable to end up in a similar situation with Luka that he was already in with Kagami.
Another voice in his head that sounded a lot like Plagg rolled its eyes and argued, “When did asking a boy out for coffee ever cause the end of the world?”
The
End